Susan Wagner capitalized on six first first-inning walks to score four runs and Falcons’ starter Anthony Rupp fired six innings of three-hit ball as Wagner advanced to the second round of the PSAL playoffs with a 9-1 victory over visiting New Utrecht Wednesday evening in Seaview.

Utes’ starter Gregory Romero was unable to find the plate in the bottom of the first frame as Wagner took a 4-0 advantage despite getting just one base hit, an RBI single by Allen Smieya.

"Once we saw their starter was having problems, I think our guys did a terrific job making him come to the plate," said Wagner coach Bob Nappo, whose team will host Walton High School (an upset winner over No. 7 Norman Thomas) Friday afternoon in second-round action.

Rupp had some control problems of his own in the top of the first as the right-hander uncharacteristically walked three batters (the only walks he issued the entire game) and was faced with a bases- loaded, one-out situation.

However, after Nappo made a quick visit to the mound, Rupp weilded and fired to first in the middle of his stretch and picked the man off first base when Fred Sabido slid in behind the runner.

"A lot of times teams will practice those kinds of plays in the gym early in the season and then never work on them again," Nappo explained. "We work on certain plays all during the season, even though most of them you’ll rarely get to use. That’s the third time this season we used that play, and the first time it worked. It got us out of quite a jam."

Rupp got the next batter on a comebacker to end the frame and then coasted through the New Utrecht lineup over the next five innings as he surrendered just three singles and struck out six in the solid effort.

The Falcons put this one away in the fifth when Jared Oks lined a one-out double to right, Smieya got aboard on an infield error, and after a groundout to first, Daniel Romolo, Robert Altieri, Jett Nouvertne and Adam Schwartz all lined base hits to make it a 9-0 contest.

The Brooklyn squad scored its only run in the seventh on a base hit and an infield error.